


through the fire

by dirty_diana



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alpha Rey (Star Wars), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/M, First Time, Het Mpreg, Knotting, Loneliness, Omega Ben Solo, Sexual Tension, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:14:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23688256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirty_diana/pseuds/dirty_diana
Summary: Alpha Rey gets a teacher in the Force. He isn't what she expected.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 24
Kudos: 120
Collections: Reylo Hidden Gems, Unusual_Bearings_2020





	through the fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cerberusia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerberusia/gifts).



> An AU that presumes that Ben never fell, and the cold war between the Alliance and the First Order has held (for now).
> 
> Thanks to llaras for the beta!

It had been a long transport ride.

The room Rey was ushered into held furniture that looked decidedly expensive, though not too practical to sit on. Rey eyed it, and the clothes she'd traveled in that she wasn't sure were particularly clean, then moved to stand by the wide glass window. The image in the window frame was one of tall, spindly trees above a strip of sand, and an ocean that disappeared into an endless horizon. Rey stared at it in fascination.

"My mother likes this one. But wouldn't you prefer to look at something real?" The rough, deep voice came from right beside her, and Rey jumped a little at the unexpected noise. There was a tall, dark-haired man standing beside her. Rey scowled at the stranger. 

"I think it's pretty," Rey said, pursing her lips.

The man just hummed, pressing buttons on the window's edge until the image shifted to its true view, of the skyscrapers of Coruscant shining brightly against the dark sky. Rey opened her mouth to object, but she was distracted by the scent coming off the human standing beside her. It was rich, earthy, filling her nose until her head almost swam. The stranger was an omega, she realised. Unmated, by the overwhelming scent of him.

Belatedly Rey tried to cover her surprise, but knew she was unsuccessful. She took two steps back in an automatic gesture of politeness. She didn't want to be seen crowding an unknown omega, like the sinister alpha villain of a holovid. If the stranger noticed or appreciated the gesture, she couldn't tell. His cool, watchful expression never changed. Rey swallowed, suddenly wishing that she'd stayed on Jakku as her instincts had told her to.

"Mother?" She repeated the man's opening words, as a realisation struck. "You're Senator Organa's son?"

"She hasn't been a senator in years," the man murmured, and Rey had the strange feeling that she'd insulted him, somehow.

He stepped back, taking his heady omega scent out of her space. She fought the urge to step forward again, wondering if he didn't know the effect he was having on her, or just didn't care. Rey looked down at her worn boots, and wondered if all omegas on the Core planets were going to be like this one.

"Ben." A woman's voice interrupted the stilted conversation, and Rey turned gratefully towards the sound. "You're both here. Good."

Leia Organa was as regal and composed as she appeared on the old holos, and somehow age hadn't chipped away any hint of her regal poise. Her hair was tied up into braids, and she was wearing clothing that was loose and simple. 

"Senator!" Rey began, then stopped herself. "I mean, um--"

Leia smiled kindly. "Leia will be fine. I hope my son Ben has introduced himself, like I'm sure I taught him to."

Beside her, Ben had shoved both hands into his pockets. He was glowering, as if his mother's appearance had made him instantly unhappy. 

"And this is Rey," Leia continued, as if she sensed nothing awkward about the moment at all. "She's very strong in the Force, Luke says."

Rey still didn't understand what that meant, exactly, and she shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

Ben stared at Rey for a while, his eyes dark and cool. Untrained as she was, Rey could still feel something foreign brush against her in the Force, and the certainty that it was coming from him. Rey reached for the slippery sensation, and pushed back, as hard as she could.

It must have worked. In the next moment Ben blinked, staring at her in surprise, and something a little like awe.

"She's a little old to be one of Luke's students, isn't she?" he asked.

"Don't be rude," Leia said. Rey didn't know if she was talking about the comment, or Ben's attempted intrusion into her mind. And then, more to Rey than Ben, "She's no older than I was."

Rey nodded gratefully at the small moment of reassurance.

"Fine," Ben said, impatient all of a sudden, as if the topic bored him. "Why is she here, instead of on Yavin 4?" He nearly spat the name of the planet, and a sensation of menace swirled around her. "Why am I here?"

"Ben," Leia said, soft but chiding. She said nothing else, but it seemed to Rey that an entire conversation passed between them with a look.

"No," Ben said firmly, when the moment had passed. His brow had furrowed into a small expression of disquiet. "Mom, I'm not a Jedi. Or a teacher."

Rey couldn't help the small wave of surprise that went through her. She'd expected to be installed in the daily life at Luke Skywalker's small school. One-on-one training would be something different, maybe intimate in small ways. With an omega.

"Luke thinks that Rey needs something different from the others."

Rey's mind raced, trying to puzzle out what that could mean. Luke Skywalker had said nothing of the sort when he'd found her on Jakku. Perhaps he hadn't even been certain that she'd agree.

"And you," Leia said to her son, "need a distraction."

Ben's drawn eyebrows suggested that he knew exactly what his mother meant by the vague comment. "What if you don't like what she learns?" he asked. His voice dropped to barely above a whisper.

Leia stared back at her son, calm and even. "I trust you, Ben."

"And Uncle Luke?" Ben shot back. "Does he trust me?"

Leia glanced over at Rey instead of answering, as if to remind her son that they had company. Ben scowled, first at his mother, then he shot the same irritated look in Rey's direction. 

Rey squared her narrow shoulders, prepared for his rejection. She was surprised when Ben's words were agreement, instead.

"We'll start tomorrow," he informed her, and then stalked from the room without another word. The heels of his boots made reverberating clicks on the smooth floor.

When they were alone, Leia smiled at her. "Welcome, Rey. I know you've come a long way."

Rey smiled back, feeling warmed by the beta woman's expression. It was so long, she thought, since she'd been in the presence of someone kind.

*

The Organa-Solo apartments were staffed by an aging protocol droid, whose yellow metal body clanked as he walked. "Apprentice Rey," he said, as he showed her to her room. "If there's anything else I can assist you with, please let me know."

Rey dropped herself onto the bed. It was the softest thing she'd ever felt, and she was distracted momentarily, running her hands across the smooth, neatly tucked sheets. When she looked up, the droid's visual receptors were still trained on her.

"C-3P0," she said, "you're a protocol droid. You can help me understand the customs here, right?"

"Certainly," the droid agreed. "I am programmed in the rituals of 771 species, including the Cave-Dwelling Lirts of--"

"That's fine, thank you," Rey said cutting the droid off. "I was only wondering about omegas. You know, here in the Core."

"Yes?" the droid prompted.

"Is it common for them to be so, you know." Tall. Curiously closed off, yet pressing their alluring omega scent at an alpha they'd only just met. Rey waved her hand vaguely. "Unmated?"

"You are from Jakku," the droid said, and Rey nodded silently. "A planet with few humans."

"I met a junk trader once," Rey said, shrugging. "He had eight omega mates, and two betas. I know it's not the same everywhere. I'm just not sure, you know. How I'm supposed to behave." Or of anything. She'd never really expected to leave Jakku. Rey just managed to stop herself from saying the last part out loud. She thought of her hand-marked calendar, forever stalled at 7000 and some days. The droid stared at her.

"The laws requiring cloistering of omegas were overturned centuries ago, though they were briefly reinstated during the time of the Empire. Many different humans live on Coruscant, with many different customs. You may need to infer proper behaviour based on circumstance."

Rey mulled over the droid's words for a moment. "Are you suggesting that I wing it?" she asked finally.

The round receptors were still trained on her. "Well, it might be best. I flew with the galactic hero Han Solo, and he always said, ahem, that plans were overrated. While I have not personally found this to be the case, it cannot be denied that his rate of success was extraordinary."

Rey sighed, leaning back into the cloud-soft bed. "Thanks, C-3PO."

"You are most welcome," the droid answered cheerfully.

*

Morning came quickly. After a nervous, rushed breakfast, a droid ushered her into a large, empty training room. Ben was already there, standing beside the window. The view was dense with Coruscant skyscrapers, and slivers of grey sky.

Ben turned to face her. Rey smoothed down her loose, black clothing, the first of a series of simple outfits that had been hanging in the closet of her guest room. It was Leia, she suspected, that had anticipated Rey had arrived on Coruscant with barely more than the clothes she wore.

"I hope you're ready," Ben said, in a tone she couldn't read. Did he doubt her? Rey's temper flared.

"I'm ready," she said, staring him down as if in a challenge. 

Ben simply nodded, then gestured to the floor. "Good. Sit."

Rey took her place on the frayed mats, once again careful not to get too close. She couldn't make out his scent as much this morning, and the realisation was oddly disappointing.

"What do you know about the Force?" Ben asked.

Rey blinked as she thought about it. "It's a power, I guess? The Jedi use it to control things, and people."

Ben tilted his head at her, mouth crooking in what wasn't quite a smile.

Rey flushed. "Was that wrong?"

"Yes," Ben said bluntly, not explaining any further.

"Well, how would I know? There weren't exactly any Jedi on Jakku, and--"

Ben's eyes flashed. "Don't keep using that word."

"Which word?" Rey frowned. "Jedi? Isn't that what you are?"

"I was trained by one. But the way the Jedi do things isn't the only way. The Force is everything, Rey. The Jedi don't own it." He studied her with intent eyes, as if trying to gauge whether she understood.

Rey didn't, but she still pushed the conversation forward. "If you're not a Jedi then, uh, what should I call you?"

"Ben is fine," he said, and Rey couldn't decide if he was deliberately being obtuse. "Reach out. Tell me what you feel."

Rey began to lift her hand, and then stopped herself. She breathed in, and closed her eyes. She'd only touched this mysterious Force a handful of times before, always by accident, without any purpose or understanding. Now she reached for it deliberately, and it came easily. Rey suddenly understood what Ben had meant when he had claimed the Force was in everything. She could feel the pulse of it in the floor beneath her, in the multitudinous hum of the shuttles beyond the window, and the many bodies they carried. Aliens and humans all distilled to one invisible essence. She lingered, reveling in the multitude of sensations around her, when her attention was caught by something whose presence in the Force stood out from the rest.

It was Ben, she realised, still breathing in front of her, distinct in the Force from all the other life forms she'd sensed. There was something different about him from this point of view, something dark and jagged. She peered closer at it, drawn in like a current through a wire. Dark, she realised, as she groped her way through the Force, was an insufficient descriptor. There was a cold sensation that went along with it, and seemed to blanket Ben like a shroud.

Not just cold. Fear. A loneliness so sharp she felt as if her skin was being cut by it. Rey wiped suddenly wet eyes as the connection was broken in a blink. Rey opened her eyes to find Ben glaring daggers at her.

"Never, ever do that again." His voice was rough and hard.

It's no more than you did to me yesterday, Rey thought, but she couldn't find breath to say it. She was growling, her instincts riled by what she had felt along the moment of connection in the Force, and by the lonely, needy omega she now saw in front of her. But there had been nothing in the Force for her to fight, and all her alpha instincts were useless. She curled her fingers into fists that sat idly in her lap, trying to clamp down on the urge to press forward and offer all the alpha comfort she could muster.

Ben tightened his lips, but a small noise that sounded something like a whimper still escaped. It was enough to startle Rey back to herself. He stood without warning, his clothing rustling around him.

"That's enough." He stalked out of the room, leaving Rey in silence.

*

Alone in the training room, she practised reaching out to the Force again, breathing in as it came easier every time.

*

The next morning began much the same as the first. Rey took in Ben's stoic face as she arranged herself on the floor mat. His scent was as strong as it had been on the previous two days, and Rey tried not to breathe it in too obviously.

"Good morning?" She couldn't tell what sort of mood he was in now.

Ben stared impassively at her, and Rey dipped her head. She stammered, and began again. "I'm sorry. For what happened yesterday.

"Never apologise for your strength." Ben's voice was unexpectedly soft.

Rey wasn't sure whether he meant strength in the Force, or as an alpha. She nodded dumbly.

Ben added, "Not everyone can touch the dark side so easily." 

"The dark side?" Rey repeated. "Is that what that was? It felt awful."

"The dark side of the Force is a tool, no different from the light," Ben said. It sounded like something he said a lot. Rey frowned.

"It felt--it felt like something sentient. Like we weren't alone."

A storm darkened in Ben's eyes. "You're mistaken."

"Are you sure?" Rey asked, faltering slightly at the scowl she received in return.

"I'm sure." Ben gestured towards the centre of the room. "Let's begin."

*

She had dinner each night with Leia, who made pleasant conversation, and said nothing of the table manners that Rey knew must be far from the standards in the high levels of Coruscant. She ate hungrily, not caring. At each meal, the food provided was more than she was used to seeing in a week.

"How is your training going?" Leia asked. "I hope my son is behaving himself."

Rey wasn't sure what to say, stumbling over an unconvincing response. 

"It's okay," Leia said gently. "I know that Ben can be emotional."

"He's an unmated omega," Rey blurted, then snapped her mouth shut in embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I just mean that a little emotion is probably to be expected."

Leia raised an eyebrow. "He'd be happier if he were barefoot and pregnant, you mean?"

Rey shook her head back and forth. "No! It's just that he seems--" She searched for words that wouldn't convey judgement to either of her hosts. "Unsettled, I guess."

Leia considered this, holding her eating utensil delicately between her fingers. "Ben's father and I made quite a few mistakes," she said finally, slowly. "It took Ben away from us for quite a few years. But we agreed we'd allow him to choose his own mate."

Rey nodded, though she wasn't sure she understood.

The data pad at Leia's elbow beeped. Leia looked down at it, and sighed. "I'm sorry, Rey. I have to take this."

"It's okay," Rey said quickly. Despite her current lack of a title, Leia Organa still had more important business to attend to than keeping Rey's company between her Jedi training sessions. Rey nodded her understanding, as Leia rose and disappeared behind a door.

*

The Coruscant apartment was expansive, and as quiet as a tomb. Between the time they spent together in Rey's training sessions, there was little sign of Ben. Yet she knew he lived just in the next rooms over, so close that she couldn't help as her thoughts went to him constantly.

After Leia left her alone, Rey found herself drifting, through the halls until she'd opened Leia's front door. Her gaze was drawn curiously down the long, dark hallway, staring at the nondescript door at the very end. Did Ben sit behind it, eating dinner alone? 

The clanging steps of the droid warned her that she had approaching company. "Apprentice Rey! Oh dear. I have been instructed to accompany you, should you wish to explore Coruscant. I am even willing to escort you to the lower levels, even though the lower levels are notorious dens of danger and villainy. Oh, dear." The droid tilted its head towards her in worry. "You don't wish to visit the lower levels, do you?"

Rey shook her head. "No, C-3PO. I was just wondering about Ben."

The droid tilted his head in the other direction. "Wondering what about Master Ben?"

Rey remembered the loneliness she had felt in the Force. It had been overwhelming. "Nothing."

The droid continued his side of the conversation without pausing. "Well, it's good to see him back. I believe Princess Leia is very pleased."

"Back?" Rey glanced over at the droid. "Back from where?"

"Why," the droid said, after pondering her question for a moment, "I don't believe anyone knows.

*

Training continued, equal parts exciting and frustrating. One morning Rey entered the training room, and stopped dead in her tracks. 

When Luke Skywalker had found her on Jakku, she had recognised him almost immediately. He was a legend whose name still carried meaning, these many years later. Rey had believed him, when he'd said that she carried a strong affinity for the Force with her. Believed that he could teach her.

Ben Solo was an unknown. Her searches of the HoloNet had turned up nearly empty, with only mentions of a young Ben in articles about his parents. There was something she still didn't understand, Rey thought, about why Luke had chosen him for a teacher. He was clearly unused to it, terse and impatient most days.

Watching him now, Rey thought she could see the strength that lay behind his dark eyes. His movements were fluid and effortless, as he swung a buzzing lightsaber at a training hologram that moved almost faster than her eyes could follow.

He spun in figures, brandishing the saber, and then opened his eyes with no warning. He was staring right at her. Rey blinked.

"When am I going to learn to do that?"

Ben had begun to sweat, and drops of moisture beaded along his arms. "Is that why you're here? To learn to fight?"

"Well, yes. Isn't that what J-isn't that the point of all this?"

He looked at her silently for a moment "Depends who you ask."

Rey shuffled impatiently. "You're my teacher. What do you think?"

Ben shrugged in a non-answer, then stretched out his free hand. A chest at the far end of the room flew open, and a flash of silver metal rose from its open mouth. A lightsaber hilt, Rey realised, as it came flying forward and landed at her feet.

"Pick it up," Ben said, in a soft, firm voice. "We'll begin now."

Rey looked at it. She felt as if she could hear the parts inside, singing softly, calling to her "With that? Isn't there a training version, or something?"

Ben made a gentle, wordless noise, still staring at her. "Are you afraid?"

Yes. No. Of course. Rey resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. She bent down, picking up the lightsaber at her feet. When she thumbed on the blade, she could feel the power that surged from her outstretched hand. She held the blade in front of her, studying it.

"Relax," Ben said. "Trust the Force."

This time Rey did roll her eyes. It was particularly unhelpful advice, coming from the least relaxed person she'd ever met. "I am relaxed."

A touch of a smile sat around Ben's eyes, the first she'd ever noticed on his face. "No. You're an alpha. You're all very serious."

Rey's eyes narrowed indignantly, suppressing a small reaction to the notion of Ben's knowledge of other alphas. "We are not--"

"--But try," Ben said. He sounded unexpectedly earnest. His blade depowered, and Rey watched as he placed the inert hilt on the floor. He reached his empty hand towards her, putting a gentle pressure on her dominant wrist. She gave into it, dropping her hands, just managing not to jump as he moved around her, dropping his hand from her hand and placing it on her hip.

This close, she could smell nothing but him. She took a hard breath, trying not to lean in towards the warmth of the light touch.

It was gone in an instant. Ben retrieved his lightsaber with one inattentive gesture, then ignited it. He fell into a defensive stance.

Rey's eyes widened, in recognition of what he was about to suggest next. "I'm not fighting--" she blurted, then let her words trail off.

"An omega?" Ben prompted. There was a trace of challenge, of bitterness, in his tone.

"I didn't say that," Rey said, shaking her head, though his comment had pinpointed her worry with the accuracy of a sniper's blaster rifle. "It's only. What if I hurt you?"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Ben said, and the cockiness was an unexpected irritation. Rey gripped her saber tighter. Ben examined her for a moment. "You have fear," he said finally. He drew the word out, sounding fascinated. "Use it."

"You just told me to relax," Rey pointed out.

Ben didn't respond to that, still staring at her. She sighed, and hefted the blade in her hands, taking two tentative steps forward. The lightsaber was less heavy than the thick wood staff she'd wielded on Jakku, and yet something about it demanded far more concentration. She took a breath, reaching for the song she'd heard at the start, and swung.

Ben raised his blade, and countered easily. She swung again, and this time held her form against his counterstrike, pushing his hands back. The position was intimate, enough that she could feel his breath on her cheek. Her desire swelled, and dazed, she broke the position first. Rey charged again.

Ben defended, again and again.

"Use your fear."

Rey shivered. There was something raw in his voice, like the emotions she'd felt in the Force the day that she'd touched his mind. The dark side, he'd said. Was that…? Rey groped for the cold surge she'd felt before. There was a flash of memory in her mind, of endless days scratched into the bulkhead of a downed ship. Of faces she could barely still picture from memory. Rey closed her eyes. She darted forward to strike.

The lightsaber moved with her, like an extension of her. She could feel Ben in the Force, feel her own attacks forcing him backwards. She was still surprised when she opened her eyes and found Ben on the floor, his lightsaber depowered and loose in his hand. He let it go, looking up at her. 

"Good," he said. "Remember that."

She didn't want to remember. The dark side was cold, and the only path there seemed to be things she never wanted to think about. Rey didn't say anything. She dropped to the ground beside him, and placed a hand flat on his chest as if to pin him to the ground. "Yield, then." 

He looked up at her. Carefully not reacting to the hint of alpha command she'd put into her voice, or showing her his throat, she noticed. There was amusement in his eyes, for the second time in the same day. "Really?" he asked.

Rey fought down a blush. Children could play like this and it meant nothing, but as they got older physical dominance took on another meaning. Of claiming, yielding, knotting. Of filling your omega with seed, and waiting for their bellies to swell with your children. But this fight hadn't been that, she reminded herself. 

Ben sat up, easily shifting his long body until their faces were even. "And what if you yield?" There was something of a warning in his voice.

"That still means you yield," Rey pointed out. The exact rules of alpha and omega contests varied across cultures, she knew, but they all ended the same way. "Doesn't it?"

He stared at her. Something indecipherable crossed his face, and he stood, ignoring the surprised noise Rey made as he shoved her gently away.

"Enough. You're here to learn. We'll go back to meditation for today."

"I was just--" Rey protested, then stopped. She had no idea what she'd been doing.

Ben shook his head. "I'm your master, Rey. If I'm to guide you, then I won't let you down, like L--"

He never mentioned Luke. 

"What? What did he do?" Rey demanded. 

"Nothing," Ben said, his voice rough and raw as a scratched wound. "It was what he thought about doing."

Rey's face scrunched up in confusion as she considered the strange comment.

Ben gestured. The lightsabers flew back into the chest, the lid slamming shut with a clapping sound. His expression was unfathomable, locked tight.

*

She was thinking about Ben's sullen, closed face long after the lesson had ended. She thought too about the way he had looked up at her from the ground, with the implicit promise of yielding.

"Trust the Force, Rey."

Rey blinked, brought back from her daydreaming by Luke's unexpected words over the HoloNet connection. "What?" she asked in confusion.

There was a delay in the feed before the beta responded. He scratched his greying beard. "You're still uncertain. Trust that the Force led you to where you need to be."

That meant precisely nothing, and Rey sighed. She didn't miss Jakku, but she missed the predictable arithmetic of salvage parts and portions. "What did you see?" she asked.

Luke frowned as if he didn't understand, but his blue eyes were glinting with something unexpressed. "See?"

"Yes. Ben says the Force sometimes shows you the future. You promise me Jedi school, then you dump me here, with an omega who's never taught anyone before! Who hates you, by the way, and you look at me like you know something I don't know. So what did you see?" By the end of the sentence Rey was almost shouting, half-risen out of the chair she'd been sitting in. In the ensuing pause, she sat down again, hitting the seat of the chair with all her weight. She felt self-conscious. It was rude to lose your temper, but it was particularly rude in an alpha, an alignment always suspected to be on the verge of losing control. Rey huffed, catching her breath.

"Are you done?" Luke asked peaceably.

Rey glared. "Perhaps."

"We have a saying on the planet I'm from. That it can be hard to see the truth when the sand is in your eyes. So perhaps I did have a vision. Or perhaps I'm just an old man who's hoping for the best."

Rey turned this over in her mind as she looked at him. "You don't seem very surprised to learn that Ben hates you," she said, finally.

"No."

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"No," Luke said again.

"Do you know where he's been?"

"No." The twinkle in Luke's eyes lit again for a moment, replacing a distant sadness that was clear even in the flickering holo. "You have a lot of questions. I suppose that's good, in a student."

"I don't think Ben likes it," Rey admitted.

"No," Luke agreed. "I don't suppose he would."

*

The lessons continued. She held the lightsaber often, increasing her proficiency with the Jedi fighting forms slowly but surely. Every now and then Ben showed her a string of movements that seemed to bear no resemblance to the slow, methodical forms she had been learning, and Rey tilted her head as she tried to track each new gesture. "What was that?" she asked.

Ben wouldn't answer. In one area, she made no progress. Rey stubbornly refused to try and touch the dark side again. Ben's expression darkened each time, but he didn't press her.

His scent seemed stronger every day. Rey fought for concentration in the storm of burgeoning want in her senses. She wondered what it meant, if his fertility was increasing, or if the change was only in her imagination. She wondered what she smelled like to him, if her own scent was deepening in response. Perhaps if she stepped forward she could smother him with it, and force the omega to his knees in surrender.

The hilt of Ben's lightsaber nudged her shoulder. "Pay attention." Were his usually pale cheeks flushed, or was that her imagination?

Rey nodded, falling back into the directed stance, striving to keep her eyes from straying back to Ben's face.

*

She saw Leia less and less as the days passed. The holoterminal in her bedroom was a barrage of unfolding events, of updates regarding communications between the Galactic Alliance and something called the First Order. Leia left Coruscant, taking a trip to Hosnian Prime, and returned a week later with new lines around her eyes. Rey had only the vaguest idea what it all meant. News had always traveled slowly to Jakku, and those who stayed on the dry, isolated planet preferred it that way. This part of the galaxy seemed to be the centre of everything, and yet sometimes Rey felt lonelier than ever.

*

At first she thought she was dreaming. But she was awake, not asleep, and the disconcerting way that her room momentarily seemed to fade around her was unlike any dream she'd ever had.

Then her surroundings were there, solid again, but she was not alone.

Ben was talking out loud. Each word was muttered beneath his breath, matching the anger that seemed to radiate from between tense shoulders.

She could smell him, and that too bore no resemblance to dreaming. Rey stepped forward, wanting to calm him. "Ben?"

Ben's eyes snapped up towards her, with a hollow ache in them that stopped her cold.

"Ben. What's happening?"

Ben continued to stare at her. She could see him swallow, struggling to cover the raw emotion on his face. She could hear him breathing hard.

With the sensation of a line suddenly snapping, Ben disappeared. Rey grunted in frustration, and reached out to the Force, but she didn't know how to get him back. 

*

The next morning Ben was terse and sullen, beginning the morning meditation as if nothing had happened. Rey fought for concentration for as long as she could, then finally gave up. Her hands thumped against the floor as she unfolded from her meditation pose. Ben opened his eyes at the disturbance and stared at her.

"Well?" Rey demanded, when the silence was too much. "Aren't we going to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Ben asked.

Rey frowned. Was it possible he didn't remember? She didn't think so. The shadow in his eyes was familiar. "You know what."

Ben's eyebrows drew together. It wasn't quite a scowl. "You need to keep your mind on where you are," he said quietly, and closed his eyes again.

Rey watched him for a moment. He didn't seem to still be angry, so that was something. She wondered if his strange moods were typical, for an omega, or if Ben's were more changeable than most. She stretched out a foot, nudging his ankle with her bare toes.

Ben's eyes snapped open again.

"I don't think I'm very good at meditation." After a pause, Rey added, "I don't think you are either."

Ben got to his feet, walking over to the chest where he stored the lightsabers. He opened it and reached in, holding the first one out to her.

With a nudge in the Force, the lightsaber leapt from his hand into her own. 

"Fine. Let's see how you're progressing with the forms."

He stepped into the centre of the room. Rey stepped forward to face him, and lifted her blade. 

There was no sound for a moment besides the swift movement of clothing and limbs, and the buzz and clash of lightsabers. Every time she countered him successfully, Ben seemed faintly pleased, and Rey couldn't hold back a smile.

"Keep your mind--" Ben began to chide her.

"--on where I am, I know." Now he was the one distracted, and Rey used the moment to press forward. Ben had to take a step backwards to dodge the swing of her lightsaber, and then another, until she'd cornered him, his back against the room's smooth wall.

"Yield." She said it playfully, much as she had during their first sparring match, but Ben's reaction was different this time. He was breathing heavily, more than could be explained by the bout of exercise. His eyes had taken on a sudden sheen.

Rey hesitated, depowering her lightsaber and dropping it to her side. Her other hand came up to his neck, hovering just shy of touch, wanting to cup his face, to comfort him even though she didn't know what was wrong. His scent thickened with something bitter, filling her senses, communicating something she couldn't decipher. Was it fear? "Ben?" she asked uncertainly.

Ben took another hard breath, almost a moan. Rey's heart skipped at the sound. There was a crackling noise, and Ben's free hand came away from the wall, marked with scorched soot where he'd been touching it. Rey's eyes widened.

"That's enough for today," he said, and each word came out slowly, as if he was struggling to speak. Ben dropped his weapon without another word, and stalked out of the room.

Rey stared after him, then glanced at the chrono on the far wall. It was still morning.

*

She didn't see Ben again that day, or the day after that. She waited for lessons to begin at the usual time, but there was no sign of him. C-3PO was dispatched to Ben's door, and returned, shaking his head.

"Oh dear, oh dear. I'm afraid Master Ben is in a foul mood."

Rey pulled out her lightsaber, and began to practise her forms in lonely silence. 

*

She felt as if she carried his scent with her still. Rey slept deeply at night, dreaming of an omega that yielded and knelt, opening himself to her, and woke with a start in the early morning with wet thighs. Rey rose in a hurry, scrambling for a towel to soak up the mess. Her knot hadn't unsheathed and spilled her seed during her sleep since she was a teenager, and the sense of embarrassment persisted the entire day.

*

The next few days were all the same. Rey stubbornly continued to meditate and practise alone, though she struggled to concentrate, losing control of her blade more than once.

This time when it happened, she recognised the feel of the Force opening a connection between them. Rey opened her eyes, uncurling from the meditation pose she'd been holding, and saw Ben in front of her. 

"Ben?"

He was slouched in a chair, arm stretched out in front of him as if he rested it on a table. Rey stretched out her left hand and felt something like solid wood form against her fingertips. 

He'd looked up before she'd spoken, but his eyes didn't quite seem to focus on her. His gaze was uncertain, pupils large and dark. His face was flushed an alarming shade of pink. "Rey?" he asked.

Rey's mouth wrinkled in worry. She couldn't smell him across the bond, this time, but she thought she could feel him a little. There was an echo of the striking yearning she'd felt before, and something else, something warm and grasping. Rey rose to her feet in a flash, a small growl escaping her throat. 

"Are you in _heat_?" she asked, her voice rising in alarm.

Ben didn't say anything, but the resigned tilt of his mouth spoke volumes.

"Is that why you disappeared? I thought you were mad at me." Rey paused, before the next sentences tumbled out of her mouth all at once. "Wait, why did you disappear? You shouldn't be alone. Where are you?" 

Her hand curled into a loose fist as it collided with the unseen tab again, this time coming away with a small object between her fingers. Rey stared at it. It was a glowing yellow star made out of a nearly weightless glass, the type of cool, small light that every cantina and restaurant on Coruscant seemed to use to subtly illuminate the premises.

"Are you in public?" she demanded, raising her voice. "Like that?"

Ben keened under his breath. "Rey."

Was he asking her to stop? Asking her to help? Rey wished she could step through the bond to wherever he was, and take hold of him right now.

"Tell me where you are." It was a distinct alpha command. 

Ben nodded, and obeyed.

*

Rey had explored Coruscant on her own a few times, but she'd never been this far down into the lower levels. No one in the small, dark cantina looked up when she entered. Rey immediately knew why. A dozen or so human patrons were clustered around a far corner. A handful of beings of other species stared silently, making no move to get involved.

"Come on, then," Rey could hear a burly human male saying as she approached. "Looks like you need some help, don't you? An omega shouldn't be in this state all by himself." The tone strove for coaxing, but it didn't quite hide the menace underneath.

Rey's hand reached into her cloak, her fingers closing around her lightsaber. If she had to fight everyone here, she would, she thought fiercely. Ben didn't have his own lightsaber here, she knew. It had still been in the training room when she'd left.

As it turned out, he didn't need it. The closest human went flying, breaking apart the cluster of beings and skidding across the floor. A pale woman followed, cursing as she stumbled into a table, clutching her face. The first man rose, stalking determinedly back towards the fight. Rey abandoned her grip on her lightsaber, grabbing hold of the closest chair with firm hands and swinging it at the man, who went down without a sound.

By the time she'd fought her way closer to Ben, she could see he was panting heavily from the exertion of the fight. Perhaps from his heat as well. His eyes were wild, his fists still raised.

"Ben." She stepped towards him. She wasn't sure if he would fight her too, or what she would do if he did.

Ben looked at her, their gaze meeting. His body was still tense, his hands coming up to ward her off. This close, the heat scent that had drawn the attention of the bar was overwhelming. 

His hands darted out to push her away. Rey braced herself against the impact, barely moving, then darted forward, grabbing his hands and pinning them to the wall.

Now that she had hold of him, his skin far too hot against her palms, Rey hesitated. Maybe she was assuming too much. Maybe he already had an alpha, in secret, and he'd been down here waiting for them. Maybe he was the kind of omega that didn't even like alphas.

Then she looked at him again, and knew she wasn't wrong.   
Ben froze in her grasp and raised his head, exposing his throat to her, and stayed perfectly still as she shifted to raise her hand to his neck, cupping his throat gently, taking the submission offered. She could feel his pulse racing, just under the skin. He was trembling, and Rey frowned, her protective instincts rising.

"We're leaving," she said firmly, and Ben followed her dazedly from the establishment.

*

The trek back to the high floors of Coruscant seemed interminable. Rey kept a firm hand on the small of Ben's back, flashing her teeth at any human who looked too long in his direction.

Ben's rooms smelled like him. Not just of the intense omega pheromones that he was giving out, but up close Rey could also make out the salty, tangy scent of his body leaking wetness, preparing itself. 

For her. Rey growled a little with want, grabbing his wrists and guiding him onto the bed. Ben's long arms came up around her, holding her close to him, bringing his face close to hers. Rey let her face hover against his for a moment. Ben's lips were parted, a series of small, hungry moans escaping. Rey kissed him, pleased when his mouth gave way pliantly to hers.

She pushed him flat on his back, onto the bed, kissing him again, then shifted away. Ben made a small, yearning noise, reaching for her.

"I'm right here," Rey reassured him. She stripped the shirt and pants she'd been wearing with brusque efficiency, then scrambled back on top of him. Ben thrust his hips up against her, wantonly rubbing against her. She could feel his already hard cock in his pants, and she rubbed exploringly over the fabric before reaching up to pull up his shirt. Her palms skimmed the heat of his torso as she tugged the item of clothing up and over his head before dropping it carelessly onto the floor.

Between groans, Ben muttered something under his breath. It sounded like, hurry up.

"Keep your mind on where you are," Rey chided cheerfully, ignoring the glare that Ben shot her in return. She kissed him again, teeth pressing playful against his mouth, her hand gliding over the arch of his throat. Ben groaned, leaning into the touch. Rey reached up to cup his face, letting him smell the alpha scent at her wrist. Ben whimpered.

"You're my first omega," Rey admitted, softly.

Ben raised his eyebrows. His hands shifted and tightened around her bare waist. "I figured that out," he said, words coming slowly between harsh, panted moans that he couldn't seem to help, "when I was on the verge of heat for days and you didn't seem to notice." Or do anything about it, his dry, unimpressed tone implied, but Rey couldn't help hearing the small note of hurt underneath.

Rey bowed her head in the rush of embarrassment. "Is that why you left?"

Ben didn't say anything to that, his eyes never straying from her face, and Rey flushed as she realised. He'd left, but he hadn't been looking for anyone else. He'd been asking her to follow him, to catch him, and she had.

Her hands moved possessively down to his hips, pulling at the fastenings on his pants. Her fingers inched around to his ass, feeling the wetness there that was beginning to seep through. Rey rubbed small circles against his hole through the fabric, feeling him buck and gyrate against her hand, her knot beginning to fill and unsheathe in response. 

When she'd pulled the rest of his clothing away, Rey knelt on the bed beside him for a moment, watching him, gently stroking his chest in soothing circles. Her eyes roved his bare body, and Ben let her look, watching her from underneath heavy lids. Ben swallowed another small series of sighs, then rolled over, lifting his ass slightly and gripping and parting both his cheeks to expose his hole. There was a trail of wetness leaking down his thighs. Rey stared in fascination. She moved her index finger to between his spread cheeks, pushing in gently at first, then up to the first, then second knuckle. She thrust shallowly in and out, leaning over him to kiss him on the back of the neck and feel his body vibrate with each trembling, shaky breath.

"Please." Ben's voice was hoarse. 

Rey considered him for a moment. She wanted nothing more than to knot him, but she didn't think he really meant that. Not yet. She brought a second finger to slide inside him with the first.

Ben moaned. He was in turns bucking upwards to meet her hand, and rubbing his full cock against the sheets in brazen, desperate need.

She liked watching him like this. Rey lost track of time as she sped up her movements, and then slowed them again, gently stretching his hole against her fingers, feeling him tremble harder with each thrust. She squeezed her thighs together, knowing her own pussy was growing wet. Ben grunted, grinding his hips in greater urgency, and then his muscles tensed and stilled. 

Rey didn't need to look to know he'd orgasmed unexpectedly, shooting come onto the sheets underneath him.

Ben gasped for air as his body relaxed. "Sorry. Fuck."

She didn't think she'd ever heard him apologise before.

"It's all right," Rey whispered. "I just want you to feel good."

"Your knot would make me feel good," Ben fired back, through clenched teeth.

Rey made a small, thoughtful noise, the only sign that she'd heard him at all. She thrust harder now, watching as he began to cant his hips again in response. Ben raised his head, twisting towards as if seeking a kiss. Rey bent her head towards him, tasting his open mouth.

After a few more thrusts, she pulled her fingers away from his hole. He'd become impossibly wetter, and heat unfurled in the pit of her belly.

She moved herself until she was kneeling between Ben's parted thighs. He'd moved his hands to grip the loose sheets.

"Rey," he whispered. He lifted his ass up for her, and she could see that his cock was swelling again. Rey gripped his waist, her hands pressing into his skin. Her knot rubbed against his hole, coming away covered in his juices, and Ben groaned at the sensation.

"I'm going to knot you," she said, pushing just the tip of her knot against his open hole.

Ben nodded impatiently.

"Put all my seed deep inside you." The idea made her insides clench with want.

"Only if you hurry up," Ben grumbled.

"Be good," Rey whispered teasingly.

Ben stilled suddenly at that. She bent to kiss the back of his neck in reassurance.

"No, I know. You are a good omega." She pushed into him slowly as she spoke, her breaths quickening. She'd never been inside anyone before, and his hole was so hot and tight that Rey bit her lip to keep from coming. "You are so good, you're going to take my knot and let me fill you up."

Ben groaned as she finally bottomed out. He was writhing again, and she pinched his skin as she gripped his hipbones to steady herself. She pulled slowly back again, savouring the slick feel of him around her, and then slammed deep into him again. Ben's body moved with the force of her thrust, and he moaned.

"Rey. Fuck."

"So good," Rey whispered. 

Rey thrust over and over, lost in the feel and scent of Ben beneath her. His hole was tightening, clenching around her as she buried herself deep inside him. Desire burned in her chest and squeezed her pulsing knot, until she came in Ben's hole with a choked moan. She moved her hand to grip Ben's cock, and realised he'd already come again. The soft skin of his stomach was sticky with it. Ben was panting hard, as if he might never catch his breath again.

She laughed a little looking down at him, considering their position. "Left," she finally ordered, and they shuffled onto their left sides together, her arms wrapped around his thick waist and her knot still inside him. 

"So, uh." Nervousness was hitting her again, and she lowered her voice to hide it. "How long do your heats usually last?"

"It'll be a little longer," Ben said, and now he was the one who sounded uncertain.

Rey nodded. "I'll be here," she said, and she could feel Ben relaxing against her.  
Her heart thudded with the knowledge her seed was buried inside him. She could hear Ben's own heart where she rested her head against his torso, still pattering too fast. Ben seemed to breathe in deeply, and closed his eyes.

*

They fell asleep joined together. She knotted him again in the early morning, then again in the light of day. Before the third Rey marched him into the shower, while a droid changed their messy sheets. That was the most intimate of all, standing face to face in the fancy Coruscant bathing stall while hot water beat comfortably on her skin.

Then they lay on the bed together, without getting dressed, wrapped in a thin blanket to keep warm. Ben was still intermittently feverish and needy, now just rubbing mindlessly against her without any urgency. She would miss this, Rey thought, when his heat passed and he went back to closing off everything he was feeling as much as he could.

"Do you think this is why the Force joined us?" she asked. They'd still never talked about their connection in the Force. Perhaps this was only natural, for an omega and an alpha that were strong in the Force. There was still so much about all of it that she wanted to learn. Ben didn't answer, and Rey spoke again.

"I think your uncle knew something, but I don't know exactly what he saw." She watched, as the usual irritation that came with mentioning Luke passed over Ben's face. 

"Maybe," Ben said, his words slow and distrustful. "Maybe he just saw a solution to his out of control omega problem."

Rey stared at him. "Is that why you thought I was here? To knot you and mate you and make you--" She searched for the right word, finally giving up. "--normal, I guess?"

Ben shrugged with the shoulder that wasn't trapped against Rey's weight, a silent admission.

"I'm surprised you agreed to this, then. If that's what you thought." 

"You needed a teacher," was all Ben said, his mouth curling downwards. Rey kissed him, mouth pressed gently against his until his dour expression finally eased. Ben whimpered against her mouth, a sign that his need was growing again. Rey rolled him onto his belly, then shifted on top of him, and the curve of his ass thrust upwards to meet her. 

She pushed her fingers between the cheeks of his ass, finding him just as ready as he'd been the first time. She didn't tease him this time, but simply nudged his hole with the tip of her unsheathing knot, sliding into him easily. Ben groaned, and Rey lost herself in the sound of his low, desperate noises as she filled and knotted him again.

*

"I don't understand half of what the Force shows me."

Rey blinked drowsily. They were still joined together, his slick still damp and sticky on her thighs. It took her a moment to realise that he was responding to her earlier question.

"It talks to me sometimes," Ben said, and it came out as a whispered, shameful confession. Rey couldn't see his face from this position, but she wished desperately that she could. "Not like you did. Something I can't see."

She furrowed her brows. "The Force does?"

"The dark side," Ben admitted. "It sounds like my grandfather, and sometimes I'm not sure--" his voice trailed off into helpless silence.

Rey swallowed the small warning noise in her throat, remembering the darkness that she'd felt in him.

It couldn't have him. Not as long as she was here.

*

Rey dozed again, and woke to find that Ben had already separated himself from her and left the bed.

She went in search of him, shuffling through the apartment in yesterday's clothes and bare feet. Ben was in the kitchen, pulling the lids from square delivery containers, and shaking the contents into bowls.

Rey watched in dismay, suddenly realising that they hadn't eaten in nearly a day. "You should have told me you were hungry," she said.

Ben glanced sideways at her, then went back to his task. "I think I can manage to order food," he answered.

Rey moved closer to him, putting one hand on his bare back. She could feel his fever had subsided from the burning heat of when she'd found him in the lower levels. They stood like that for a while, breathing together.

"I'm pregnant." Ben said it so quietly that at first Rey wasn't sure if she'd heard him right.

 _You can't know that yet,_ Rey opened her mouth to say, but something stopped her from saying it.

Ben was looking at her. Waiting for something.

"Good," she said, and his shoulders lifted slightly. She hadn't realised they'd been sagging.

"Is it?" 

"Yes." Rey hesitated. "Isn't it?" Now she was the unsure one. 

Ben nodded after a moment. "Yes."

"Good," Rey said again, then smiled. "Our first."

"First?" Ben repeated. He sounded amused.

"Yes. You don't think I'm going to let anyone else accompany you during your heats, ever? I'm going to knot you and fill you, every year." She shifted until she was in front of him, with her back against the counter. She pressed a hand against his still flat belly, pausing as thoughts of the real world filtering back in. "Unless there's a war, I guess."

"I don't care about what happens out there," Ben said, voice quiet and strained, and Rey couldn't tell if he meant it. Maybe it was still the heat talking.

She buried her nose against Ben's shoulders, and his hands rose to cradle her head and keep her pressed against him. Did he already smell different, pregnant? Mated? Rey thought that maybe did.

"No class today," she said, and Ben nodded, his face pressed close to the top of her head.

"I think you're learning plenty."

Rey choked back a giggle, peering up at him suspiciously. "Was that a joke?"

Ben shrugged, making her laugh again, face pressed into his chest.

*

EPILOGUE

*

The planet's red sun was shining, but Rey couldn't see anything past the mouth of the cave. She tried once more to squint into the cool blackness, and then, giving up, reached out with the Force. The cave seemed to reach back, and Rey stepped back, eyeing it warily.

"Maybe you should come with me."

Ben looked amused. His hands curved protectively around his swollen belly. "The Force will be with you. And I'll be fine," Ben finished, when Rey still hesitated. One hand moved to his lightsaber, as if to underscore the point.

The war would be here any day. Rey could feel it, something like an agitation in the Force that she couldn't help but be aware of. Ben stubbornly refused to talk about it.

She put a hand on his belly, and was rewarded with a kick as the baby shifted. She was lingering, and Ben knew it, giving her a disapproving look.

"You need a lightsaber," he said, "which means you need a kyber crystal, which means you'll need to go in there. You're ready."

He sounded so sure, so full of faith in her. 

Rey still hesitated. She thought, under the strange blankness of the cave, that she could feel the unseen crystals calling to her now.

She rubbed her hand over his belly one more time, before reaching up to kiss him.

Her family. The first one that she'd ever had.

Rey grinned, then turned away, sprinting into the cave as fast as she could.

*fin.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! 
> 
> [dw: dirty_diana](https://dirty-diana.dreamwidth.org)  
> [tumblr: sweeter_than](https://sweeter-than.tumblr.com)  
> [twitter: sweeter_diana](https://twitter.com/sweeter_diana)


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